Keepers

This video of Jack Simon says a lot of what I feel about making photographs. He’s been shooting for about seven years, and nets about one keeper a month. But a keeper is not always a keeper. I, too, find that my tastes change, even from hour to hour. What seemed wonderful one day can seem banal the next. My goal and guiding principle is not to make boring photographs. Most of the time I fail, like most photographers. Often I don’t even realize until later. A shot which pleased me becomes flat and cliched in an instant, as if some switch had been flicked.These pages are mostly things from my attempts to post one recent image a day I think is worth looking at. It’s funny. I never have a problem making public anything I’ve written. But posting photographs embarrasses me. They are more revealing of my shortcomings than words.

Sometimes things just blow me away with their uncelebrated beauty, like this cable holder. This image has not gone stale; I like it as much now as the day I shot it.